KO PING CHUNG WINS THE 46TH US OPEN POOL CHAMPIONSHIP
Ko Ping Chung has won the 46th US Open Pool Championship at Harrah’s Resort, Atlantic City, after beating Fedor Gorst live on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom & Ireland and DAZN in the United States.
Ko Ping Chung 13-6 Fedor Gorst
Following the final four racks against Max Lechner, the 11-0 semi-final whitewash of Aloysius Yapp and the first rack of the final, Ko Ping Chung had recorded 16 consecutive racks – an incredible feat to help open proceedings. But Gorst wasn’t prepared to allow a repeat of the semi-finals, winning the next two to go ahead.
The Ghost’s defence has grown in strength as the week advanced, with some brilliant safety play coercing Ko into mistakes, helping him establish a three-rack margin at 5-2. The 23-year-old maintained a 100% safety success throughout the opening 12 racks.
A ridiculous five-rail fluke on the 3-ball set a series of events that stopped the rut, eventually seeing the Chinese Taipei World Cup of Pool star come back to level the match at 6-6. A mistake from Gorst at 6-3 left the three over the pocket, then a fault on the same ball in the next rack invited Ko to clean up and level the match.
Ko Ping Chung knows how to control the momentum of a match, having produced a flawless display in the semi-finals. From 6-all, the match quickly became 10-6 as seven consecutive racks were accumulated to leave him three from home.
There was a shocked gasp around the audience at the start of the 17th as Ko Ping Chung broke dry – such was the quality of his play across Saturday – having pocketed the one into the middle pocket on every break against Aloysius Yapp. It looked like this was Gorst’s chance to get back into the match after Ko hung the 6-ball over the pocket – however Gorst could only look on in disbelief after scratch off the rail to fall to 11-6.
When momentum is on his side, it’s very difficult to stop Ko Ping Chung, who finished with 10 consecutive racks to claim the biggest title of his career. Ping Chung follows brother Pin Yi in landing a Matchroom Major title in 2023 – having won the 2023 World Pool Masters in Brentwood, England earlier this year.
The $50,000 World Nineball Tour Ranking Points top prize sees the 28-year-old move from 10th to number four in the WNT Rankings.
SVB Junior Open
Matchroom extends it’s congratulations to Lazaro Martinez, the winner of the 2nd annual SVB Junior Open on Saturday, following a 9-7 victory over Estonian prodigy Karl Gnaderberg.
Martinez, representing the United States, received a elated ovation from the home crowd and will look to build on his prospects down the line on the World Nineball Tour.
The 17-year-old follows in the steps of Khalid Alghamdi, who won the inaugural event in 2022.
